The present invention relates to a connector for use in miniature electronic appliances such as terminal equipment of cellular or portable telephones, and more particularly to a connector using flexible printed circuit boards adapted to be electrically connected in a simple manner.
In general, a connector includes a required number of contacts and a housing fixing therein said contacts and having a fitting aperture into which a flexible printed circuit board is inserted. These contacts are fixed to the housing by press-fitting, lancing or hooking or the like. In the case of two flexible printed circuit boards to be connected, connection portions of contacts of such a connector are fixed to one flexible printed circuit board as by soldering. When the other printed circuit board is inserted into the fitting aperture of the housing, the other flexible printed circuit board is connected to contact portions of the contacts of the connector, thereby achieving electrical continuity of the two flexible printed circuit boards.
The miniature electronic appliances such as terminal equipment of portable telephones have been developed to increase their functions, while at the same time such electronic appliances have been even more miniaturized so that spaces given to their inner components have been surprisingly reduced.
In order to solve this problem, one attempt has been made to form a connector having thin walls to provide a space therein as wide as possible. However, such a connector suffers a disadvantage from the fact that it may be warped due to heating during soldering process. On the other hand, the increased functions of the appliances would involve increased soldering steps in manufacturing processes which would inhibit desired reduction of manufacturing cost. As a result of employing soldering as fixing means, there is no area for mounting the connector other than a flexible printed circuit board, limiting freedom of selection of connector mechanisms.
Moreover, there is a case that without using a connector a flexible printed circuit board is directly connected to a mating circuit board by soldering or, in particular, by the use of ACF (anisotropic conductive film). In such a case, however, disassembling for required maintenance would become impossible which is inconvenient.